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Fame is but an inscription on a grave, and glory the melancholy blazon on a coffin lid.

Alexander Smith

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Alexander Smith
Age: 36 †
Born: 1830
Born: December 31
Died: 1867
Died: January 5
Poet
Cille Mheàrnaig
Coffins
Melancholy
Grave
Graves
Reputation
Fame
Inscription
Glory
Inscriptions
Coffin

More quotes by Alexander Smith

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I go into my library, and all history unrolls before me. I breathe the morning air of the world while the scent of Eden's roses yet lingered in it, while it vibrated only to the world's first brood of nightingales, and to the laugh of Eve. I see the pyramids building I hear the shoutings of the armies of Alexander.
Alexander Smith
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If a man is worth knowing at all, he is worth knowing well.
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I have learned to prize the quiet, lightning deed, not the applauding thunder at its heels that men call fame.
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The saddest thing that befalls a soul is when it loses faith in god and woman.
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We have two lives The soul of man is like the rolling world, One half in day, the other dipt in night The one has music and the flying cloud, The other, silence and the wakeful stars.
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If you wish to make a man look noble, your best course is to kill him. What superiority he may have inherited from his race, what superiority nature may have personally gifted him with, comes out in death.
Alexander Smith
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Stirling, like a huge brooch, clasps Highlands and Lowlands together.
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Sweet April's tears, Dead on the hem of May.
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If you wish to preserve your secret, wrap it up in frankness.
Alexander Smith
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There is nothing good in this world which time does not improve.
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To-day is always different from yesterday.
Alexander Smith
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Looking forward into an empty year strikes one with a certain awe, because one finds therein no recognition. The years behind have a friendly aspect, and they are warmed by the fires we have kindled, and all their echoes are the echoes of our own voices.
Alexander Smith
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Thoughts must come naturally, like wild-flowers they cannot be forced in a hot-bed, even although aided by the leaf-mould of your past.
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In winter, when the dismal rain Comes down in slanting lines, And Wind, that grand old harper, smote His thunder-harp of pines.
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Trees are your best antiques
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Christmas is the day that holds all time together.
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A man's real possession is his memory. In nothing else is he rich, in nothing else is he poor.
Alexander Smith
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To be occasionally quoted is the only fame I care for.
Alexander Smith
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The dead keep their secrets, and in a while we shall be as wise as they - and as taciturn.
Alexander Smith
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A brave soul is a thing which all things serve.
Alexander Smith